AP European History Summer Assignment As a student of AP European History you will have many responsibilities to help prepare you for the fall. This assignment will be posted on my class website http://bshawapeuro.weebly.com/ as well on the LHS site or available in hard copy through LHS Guidance. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to email me- Mrs. Bradshaw [email protected] All assignments are due the first day of class and will be the first grades you receive in the class. Why a Summer Assignment? 1. The volume of reading and work that accompanies the course is substantial. This will help you prepare for the amount of reading, analyzing, and coursework that will be required throughout the year. Remember this class is the equivalent of a college-level survey course in European History, the amount of work and expectations are in line with that. 2. The analysis portion of these assignments will prepare you for the Document-Based Question (DBQ) essay on the AP exam. 3. Part of this assignment will prepare you to confront and evaluate history as it relates to the themes of AP European History 4. Geography and key vocabulary skills are necessary in order to be successful in the course, doing these assignments will help you prepare to jump into this course as well as help me to evaluate your skill level in order to better prepare you for the AP exam. Manage your time wisely! I suggest you don’t wait until the last few weeks of summer to start your assignment. Pace yourself. This will allow you to be successful on the assignment as well as help you to gain necessary time management skills. Assignment #1 Medieval Europe Reading Read the attached article- “Medieval Europe: From the Fall of Rome to the Renaissance” and answer the corresponding questions- each response should fully answer the question (1-2 sentences is not appropriate). This reading is necessary to give you a good background leading up to the Renaissance, which is where this course begins. Assignment #2 Map of Europe Fill in the map of Europe and be prepared to identify locations throughout Europe.

Countries Austria “Balkans” (color & label as one) “Baltic States” (color & label as one) Belgium Czech Republic Denmark France Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Italy

Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Republic of Ireland Russia Slovakia Spain Switzerland Turkey United Kingdom

Cities Berlin Kiev London Moscow Nantes Paris Prague Rome St. Petersburg Vienna Warsaw

Assignment #3 Vocabulary Essential Concepts/Flashcards Directions: Use the internet, AP Review book, etc. to identify the following terms and create flashcards for each term to review. You will be tested on them upon your return to school. 41. Natural Law 21. Freedom 1. Absolutism 42. Oligarchy 22. Free Enterprise 2. Appeasement 43. Papacy 23. Globalism 3. Balance of Power 44. Politics 24. Historical Change 4. Baroque 45. Politique 25. Historical Continuity 5. Bourgeoisie 46. Radicalism 26. Humanism 6. Capitalism 47. Renaissance 27. Idealism 7. Causation 48. Realism 28. Imperialism 8. Civilization 49. Reformation 29. Impressionism 9. Cold War 50. Republicanism (not the 30. Individualism 10. Commercial Revolution political party) 31. Industrialization 11. Conservatism 51. Rococo 32. Intellectual 12. Constitutionalism 52. Romanticism 33. Laissez-Faire 13. Culture 53. Schism 34. Liberty 14. Divine Right 54. Society 35. Liberalism 15. Economics 55. Socialism 36. Laissez-faire 16. Enlightenment 56. Sovereignty 37. Mercantilism 17. Equality/Inequality 57. Surrealism 38. Militarism 18. Existentialism 58. Totalitarianism 39. Monarchy 19. Expressionism 59. Westernization 40. Nationalism 20. Fascism Assignment #4 Movie Analysis To help you become acquainted with the different historical periods we are going to be studying you will watch 5 of the following films- only one from each period (with three periods left out). This is a way for to become familiarized with the various events and characters in history in a way that will give you a visual of the time period and encourage your understanding of the personalities involved and the issues they faced. Complete the Movie Analysis Form for EACH FILM. Things to keep in mind: ● No credit will be given for films not listed as options, including alternative versions- you are given release dates and names of stars to ensure you can procure the correct film. ● You should be able to access these films through the Hoopla or available at the public library, YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc. There are enough options given that you should be able to track down 5. ● Some of them are rated R, please make sure you have parent permission BEFORE watching. ● It is a good idea to look them up on IMDB or Amazon to find out what you are interested in before sitting down to watch them. ● Many of these are classics you may watch at some point in your lives anyway, ask your parents or grandparents for recommendations. You never know they may enjoy sitting down and watching with you! Medieval-Renaissance/Reformation ● A Man for All Season (1966, 120 mins, NR = Paul Scoffield, Robert Shaw) ● Black Death (2010, 102 mins, R = Eddie Redmayne & Sean Bean) ● Elizabeth (1998, 124 mins, R = Cate Blanchett & Joseph Fiennes) ● Elizabeth: the Golden Age (2007, 114 mins, PG13 = Cate Blanchett & Clive Owen)

● ● ● ● ● ●

Henry V (1989, 137 mins, PG13 = Kenneth Branagh) Lady Jane (1986, 142 mins, PG13 = Helena Bonham Carter & Cary Elwes) Luther (2003, 123 mins, PG13 = Joseph Fiennes) The Lion in Winter (1969, 134 mins, PG = Katharine Hepburn & Peter O’Toole) The Messenger: Story of Joan of Arc (1999, 148 mins, R = Milla Jovovich & John Malkovich) The Wars of the Roses: A Bloody Crown (2002, 200 mins- TV miniseries = Graham McTavish)

Enlightenment Period/French Revolution ● Amadeus (1984, 160 mins, R = Tom Hulce, F. Murray Abraham) ● Danton (1983, 136 mins, PG = Gerard Depardieu) ● Les Miserables NOT THE MUSICAL (1998, 134 mins, PG13 = Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush) ● Les Miserables the Musical (2012, 148 mins, PG13 = Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway) ● Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994, 123 mins, R = Robert De Niro, Kenneth Branagh) ● The Madness of King George (1994, 107 mins, PG 13 = Helen Mirren & Rupert Graves) ● War & Peace (1956, 208 mins, PG = Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda) ● Waterloo (1970, 123 mins, G = Rod Steiger, Christopher Plummer) 18th-19th Centuries ● Amazing Grace (2006, 118 mins, PG = Ioan Gruffudd, Albert Finney) ● Catherine the Great (1996, 100 mins, TV movie = Catherine Zeta-Jones, Paul McGann) ● Germinal (1993, 160 mins, R = Gerard Depardieu) *French w/ English subtitles ● Hard Times (1994, 100 mins TV miniseries = Harriet Walter, Alan Bates) ● Modern Times (1936, 87 mins, G = Charlie Chaplin) ● Napoleon & Josephine: A Love Story ( 1987, 285 mins, TV miniseries = Armand Assante) ● The Duchess (2008, 110 mins, PG13 = Kiera Knightly, Ralph Fiennes) ● The Importance of Being Earnest (2002, 97 mins, PG = Rupert Everett, Colin Firth) ● The Mission (1986, 125 mins, ,PG = Jeremy Irons, Robert De Niro) ● The Young Victoria (2009, 105 mins, PG = Emily Blunt & Paul Bettany) Russian and Chinese Revolutions ● 1984 (1984, 113 mins, R = John Hurt, Richard Burton) ● Dr. Zhivago (1965, 197 mins, PG-13 = Omar Sharif, Julie Christie) ● Nicholas & Alexandra (1971, 183 mins, PG = Michael Jayston, Janet Suzman) ● Reds (1981, 195 mins, R = Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton) ● Stalin (1992, 172 mins TV movie, Robert Duval) ● The Last Emperor (1987, 163 mins, PG13 = John Lone, Joan Chen) World War I ● 37 Days (2014, 60 mins, TV miniseries = Ian McDiarmid, Nicholas Farrell) ● All Quiet on the Western Front (1930, 136 mins, NR = Lew Ayres, John Wray) ● Gallipoli (1981, 110 mins, PG = Mel Gibson, Bill Kerr) ● Gandhi (1982, 191 mins, PG = Ben Kingsley, Candice Bergen) ● Lawrence of Arabia (1962, 215 mins, PG = Peter O’Toole, Alec Guinness) ● My Boy Jack (2007, 95 mins TV movie = Daniel Radcliffe, Kim Catrall) ● The African Queen (1951, 105 mins, PG = Humphrey Bogart, Katherine Hepburn) ● The Wipers Times (2013, 92 mins TV movie = Ben Chaplin, Patrick FitzSymons)

World War II ● Au Revoir, les Enfants (1987, 104 mins, PG = Gaspard Manesse) * French w/ subtitles ● Enemy at the Gates (2001, 131 mins, R = Jude Law, Rachel Weisz) ● Life is Beautiful (1997, 116 mins, PG-13 = Roberto Benigni) *Italian w/ subtitles ● Nuremberg (2000, 180 mins, TV miniseries = Alec Baldwin, Brian Cox) ● Schindler’s List (1993, 195 mins, R = Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley) ● The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957, 161 mins, PG = Alec Guinness, William Holden) ● The Children of Huang Shi (2008, 125 mins, R = Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Radha Mitchell) ● The King’s Speech (2010, 118 mins, R = Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush) ● Tora Tora Tora (1970, 144 mins, G = Martin Balsam, Jason Robards) The Cold War ● Atomic Cafe (1982, 86 mins, NR- read the IMDB description) ● Dr. Strangelove…(1964, 95 mins, PG = Peter Sellers, george C. Scott) ● Goodbye, Lenin! (2003, 120 mins, R = Daniel Bruhl) *German w/ subtitles) ● October Sky (1999, 108 mins, PG = Jake Gyllenhaal, Laura Dern) ● Red Dawn (1984, 114 mins, PG-13 = Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell) ● The Iron Lady (2001, 100 mins, Pg-13 = Meryl Streep, Jim Broadbent) ● The Third Man (1949, 93 mins, NR = Orson Welles) ● War Games (1983, 114 mins, PG = Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy) Post-Cold War Europe & Others ● Bloody Sunday (2002, 107 mins R = James Nesbitt, Tim Pigot-Smith) ● In the Land of Blood & Honey (2011, 127 mins, R = Zana Marjanovic, Goran Kostic) ● Mandela and De Clerk (1997, 94 mins, TV movie = Sidney Poitier, Michael Caine) ● Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013, 141 mins, PG-13 = Idris Elba, Naomi Harris ● Michael Collins (1996, 133 mins, R = Liam Neeson, Aidan Quinn) ● Savior (1998, 103 mins, R = Dennis Quaid, Nastassja Kinski) ● The Queen (2006, 103 mins, PG-13 = Helen Mirren)

Movie Critique Your name AP European History Summer Assignment Title of Film: Main Actors: The Plot: Summarize the film Relationship to history: Give a summary of the historical period or event in which this movie is set. Who are the historical players? Describe who they are and provide a brief description of who they are historically. In which country is this movie set? Were there any characters based on real people? Who were they and were they treated with historical accuracy? Were there any real events (battles, migrations, laws, etc.)? How does this movie tie in with our history course? Evaluation: Give an evaluation of the film. Don't just say, "I liked it because it was a good movie," or "I hated it because it was so boring." Like a real film critic, point out the strengths and weaknesses of the movie. Which actors did a good job and which were inadequate? Were there places where the plot was vague, too slow, or too fast? What would have made the film better? Would you recommend it to another student?

Medieval Europe: From the fall of Rome to the Renaissance Background Reading Linking Classical to Modern Times From approximately 200 B.C. to 476 A.D. the “civilized” areas of Europe and the Near East were dominated, ruled, and imprinted with a lasting influence from the Roman Empire. At its greatest extent, the Roman Empire stretched east to include Greece, Turkey, Syria, Mesopotamia and Persia; it stretched south to encompass Africa north of the Sahara from the Atlantic to Egypt; and, it stretched north and west in Europe with its frontiers on the Danube and the Rhine and included Great Britain south of Scotland and Hadrian’s Wall. This great empire crumbled for a variety of reasons including: internal political corruption; the economics and social difficulties arising from ruling such a vast territory; the high cost of warfare to maintain the empire; labor surplus problems largely caused by slavery; overindulgence by the citizenry; and immorality, indolence, and reduced production causing heavy public welfare expenses. Religious and ethnic strife caused division of the people of Rome from within while Germanic tribes invaded the Empire from the North and East. The fall of Rome actually occurred gradually over a period of years, but is usually set at 476 A.D., the year Odoacer, a chieftain from a Germanic tribe, seized the city and proclaimed himself emperor. Although the Western Roman Empire and the government in Rome itself fell, the Empire lived on in the East. The Emperor Diocletian had divided the Empire during his reign (284-305) to increase administrative efficiency. The Emperor Constantine (reigned, 324-337) had erected a new capital on the site of the Greek city of Byzantium, which controlled the passage from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, calling it Constantinople. Theodosius I (r. 378-395) was the last emperor to actually rule both portions of the Empire simultaneously. The Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire contained more diverse nationalities than the West. The dominant language of the Byzantine Empire was Greek rather than Latin, and it featured a much heavier influence from Hellenistic, Semitic, and Persian cultures. The Byzantine Empire contained most of the Roman Empire’s rich commercial centers including Alexandria, Athens, and Damascus, as well as Constantinople. While Rome and the western Empire fell, the Byzantine Empire survived at Constantinople, the modern city Istanbul, until 1453 when it was conquered by the Ottoman Turks. Only then did the city cease to be the cultural and economic center of Byzantine rule in the East. During the centuries of Roman rule, the entire civilized European world was united under one rule. (The Romans called everyone who was not a Roman a barbarian.) When Rome fell, that union also vanished: For centuries there was no unity and there were no nations as we know them today. As the many nomadic Germanic tribes from northern Europe moved across the continent during the period, sometimes called the “Dark Ages”, what political organization did exist in Europe grew out of the tribal organizations of these people. Only a few of these tribes made a lasting impression. The Anglos and Saxons established their rule and culture in Great Britain (hence the name “Angleland”) and the Franks (as in “France”) dominated northern and western Europe. The Vandals are remembered for their especially destructive behavior, and the word Gothic (from the Goths) was later used to describe these tribes collectively. Charlemagne (French for Charles the Great) was King of the Franks from 768-814 and was able to unite most of Western Europe into the Frankish Kingdom which lasted from 800-860. On Christmas Day, 800 A.D., after restoring Pope Leo III (reigned, 795-816) in Rome from which he had been driven by invaders, Charlemagne (reigned, 768-814) was crowned by the Pope as “Emperor of the Romans”. The Frankish Kingdom then became known as the Holy Roman Empire, a name that would remain until the Empire was dissolved by Napoleon in 1806, Voltaire would later note that it was neither Holy, nor roman, and not an empire because it was only a confederation of Germanic tribal states. This was the first serious attempt (many others would follow) to re-establish the rule and grandeur of Europe along the lines of the fallen Roman Empire, which has continued to be a mythical ideal to be re-established someday. It also established an entangling relationship between Church and State that would dominate Europe for centuries. At this time in history, without modern communication methods and with travel more difficult and hazardous than ever it was difficult even for good rulers to maintain strict control over wide-spread lands. Thus, governing rested mainly in the hands of the local nobility. When Charlemagne died, his empire passed to his son, Louis I, “the Pious” (reigned 814-840), who in turn divided the empire among his three sons. These sections roughly became some of the main divisions of Western Europe we find today: France, Germany and the middle kingdom of northern Italy. However, Charlemagne’s grandsons, the rulers of these three kingdoms were far less than competent. Between their poor rule and

the continuing invasions of Europe by Moslems, Slavs, Magyars and Viking (or Norsemen), Charlemagne’s empire was lost except in name and tradition. After the breakup of Charlemagne’s empire, European political organization was characterized by weak kings and strong nobles or lords who ruled their estates rather independently. This kind of political organization is known as feudalism. Feudalism was also a social and economic organization based on a series of reciprocal relationships. The king in theory owned the land which he granted to lords who in return would give service, usually in the form of military aid, to the king. The receiver of the land became a vassal, and these grants of lands were known as fiefs. Sometimes these fiefs were larger than a lord could himself administer. So he, in turn, granted use of part of the land to lesser lords who pledged their served in return. This system continued on until, at the lowest level, a knight (the lowest level of this landed nobility) administered only a small feudal estate. Each of these lords were part of the nobility and therefore above the level of true labor. The actual farming and other necessary labor on the land were performed by serfs who were bound to the land and actually transferred from one landlord to another with its title. They produced the necessities of the estate. In return, they received protection by the nobles and a share of the produce of the land. The serf was not a slave in the true legal sense, for a class of slaves, usually prisoners from war, did exist. A small class of free men also existed having won their freedom for themselves and their descendants for service to some past lord. They usually performed the special skills of craftsmen, artisans, and merchants and were the beginning of a middle class. During the Middle Ages, warfare was almost constant between lords who fought for power, land, or wealth. Probably hardest hit by this near constant warfare were the serfs whose homes and fields were often the scenes of battles and suffered the damages. Indeed, the very slave-like status of the serf was due to his need for protections from this warfare. Feudal manors provided both political and social organization, as mentioned above. They also were individual economics units, nearly self-sufficient due to medieval warfare, the difficulties of travel, and the resultant lack of trade. The feudal estate featured a manor-home, usually fortified castle surrounded by protective walls, belonging to the lord, surrounded by fields, herds and villages where serfs lived and worked. The serfs by their labor provided everything needed on the estate. An important economics characteristic of the period was the decline in travel and trade. Under the Roman Empire, there had been a great amount of trade between the widespread areas of the Empire. Legions patrolled the roads and the roads linked the provinces. After the fall of Rome, with no government to supply protection or to keep the roads and bridges repaired, travel became difficult and dangerous. This danger, coupled with ignorance and lack of desire to change the situation by the powerful lords, who manors required little trade, led to the decline in travel and trade. One reason for the early Middle Ages were designated as the Dark Ages us that education and learning also declined. People were busy with their roles in life. There was no government to sponsor education. Because of the lack of trade and travel, contact with the scholars of the ancient world was lost. However, while civilization in Europe declined, learning and discovery was progressing in Asia and the Middle East waiting to be rediscovered by future generations of Europeans. The Roman Catholic Church was the only center of knowledge during this period and learning was mostly religion-centered. True scholarship lived on in the monasteries where devout monks had withdrawn from the corruption and violence of the outside world. There they preserved the ancient writing of the advanced civilizations of Greece and Rome; this treasure of Classical knowledge awaited its discovery by people in the future who care more for these achievements. The dominant philosophy of the late Middle Ages was best articulated by St. Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274) and known as scholasticism. Although Aquinas’ scholasticism attempted to reconcile all new knowledge with accepted Christian dogma, it ran into many problems. Learning emerged from the Dark Ages and the long conflict between science and religion was about to begin. Under scholasticism, if reason and religious dogma clashed, reason must always give way because religious knowledge was considered to be without error. In fact, nearly everything in feudal Europe seemed to be religiously centered. Religion and the after-life became the focal point of thought and living. The influence of religion can also clearly be seen in the art, architecture, literature, and music of the time. Perhaps because life was so hard on earth, the peasants endured it concentrating on and longing for their reward in the after-life. The Roman Catholic Church remained the only stable and unifying institution left over from the old Roman days and therefore came to dominate the lifestyle of the feudal era. The Church claimed

superiority over al earthly political figures (as heaven was supreme over earth). As Pope Leo III had crowned Charlemagne, later popes claimed to be superior to kings and all other feudal rulers of the temporal world. The Church’s official name of Roman Catholic (meaning universal with its headquarters in Rome) was reminiscent of the old Empire. The dream of a new Roman Empire in the image of the Church was envisioned by Pope Gregory VII (1073-1080) as “Christendom”. The Church reached the height of its power and influence under Pope Innocent III (reigned, 1198-1216). the church’s hierarchy paralleled that of ancient Rome: the Pope occupied the position of the emperor. The bishops presided over bishoprics, as the governors had once presided over the Roman provinces, Local parish priests ministered to each local community. Geographically or politically important bishops became archbishops and, in time, the College of Cardinals, appointed by the Pope, occupied a legislative position equivalent to that once held by the Roman Senate. The Cardinals had the further responsibility to elect each new pope. The church had its own law, canon law, and its own court system which was a rival to that of the new emerging monarchies. The Church was the constant link the people and God. Church doctrine held that one could only get to heaven by doing good works and observing the sacraments. The seven sacraments (baptism, confirmation, communion, penance, holy matrimony, holy orders, and extreme unction or last rites) kept an individual constantly connected with God and the Church from birth to death. Individuals could be punished by excommunication, the process of being cut off from the Church when a person could not receive the sacraments. Whole geographic areas could be punished through interdiction which prohibited the performance of any of the sacraments in that district. Interdiction was a powerful weapon against immoral, rebellious, or independent feudal rulers. On the other hand, the Church actually provided the only real opportunity in the Middle Ages for an exceptional individual to excel and rise above the social status of his birth. The Church was far more organized than any political state in Europe, but such extensive organization and the access to great wealth also provided the opportunity for corruption. This would be one of the major causes of the loss of prestige that would come at the end of the Middle Ages. The social structure of Europe during the Middle Ages was strictly divided into three classes or “estates”. The First Estate, composed of the ordained officers of the Church, from Pope to parish priest and wandering monk, constituted a separate class claiming authority from God. The nobility by virtue of its land ownership and its right to bear arms, made the nobles’ primary function as warriors. They comprised the Second Estate. Everyone else, mostly peasants, was grouped into a Third Estate with no base for power. Problems with this social structure were inevitable. A new money economy emerged and many commoners of the Third Estate became richer and more powerful than the old nobility of the Second Estate whose members’ wealth was based solely on land ownership. The system of feudalism decentralized the power of the state and made for a weak national government. Feudal lords were the real power in their local provinces. Since the soldiers in a feudal army were as likely as not recruited and paid by the lords, kings were very dependent upon their loyalty and weakened because of this feudal system. A centralized government would mean a loss of local power of the feudal lords. The Church also favored this system of weak national monarchies. Both the old nobility and the high-ranking Church officials had much power to lose if strong national governments developed. In order for the modern nation-state with its central government to emerge, new monarchs would have to challenge this entrenched power system. Feudal Europe was a self-perpetuating society for almost a millennium. The lack of learning and education and the lack of travel and trade tended to keep society as it was. Even if new ideas, products and methods were discovered, they were not widely introduced. More than any other factor, it was a series of religious wars known as the Crusades that were responsible for bringing Europe out of the Dark Ages into the high Middle Ages and eventually the Modern Age. These wards were fought by northern European Christian lords and kings who were responding to a call from Pope Urban II (reigned 10881099) to drive Muslims from the Holy Land of Palestine after the Turks began to restrict religious pilgrimages and persecute Christians in the Middle East. The threat from invading tribes had lessened along with the opportunity to gain new lands. Also, the Pope promised salvation to all who fought in the religious wards. So many of these lords went off to the Middle East to fight for God and glory. The Crusades went on over a period of time beginning in 1095 and lasting for over 300 years. They were militarily unsuccessful, and many of the soldiers seemed more interested in looting and fortune hunting. Also, the native Muslims proved a formidable foe. However, the Crusades were a turning point in the

history and development of Europe. The Crusades brought tremendous economic, social, and political changes to Europe. First, trade was gradually re-established. During the Crusades, soldiers brought back many of the products of the East including spices and textiles. As Europeans became more and more accustomed to having these luxuries, they began to expand their trade. With increasing trade, there came a need for new products to sell and people to carry on these transactions. Therefore, a whole new class in society was created: the merchants and craftsmen of the middle class. Cities also began to grow as centers of population and trade. Venice, Genoa, and Pisa in Italy became great port cities as the trade between the Middle East and Western Europe passed through them. Italy thus became the gateway to Europe in the late Middle Ages. Neither the independently wealthy cities nor the growing, newly wealthy, but nonnoble, middle class fit into the political or social structure of feudalism. Land had been the only real source of wealth in the Middle Ages. However, the expanding use of money for trade made land ownership less important, as land does not bring wealth unless it produces a surplus for sale. Thus, the feudal system was breaking down and would eventually be replaced. The only question was what way of life would arise to take the place of this long-entrenched system? Feudalism had dominated Europe politically, socially, and economically since the return of order after the fall of Rome. The new traders and merchants developed a system of their own to bring order to the new state of economics. To maintain the quality and prices of goods and services, the “guild system” was developed. By this system, merchants and craftsmen maintained control over their own professions. A townsman was forbidden to practice a trade or enter a business without the approval of the guild membership that consisted of those regarded as master craftsmen. To practice a trade, one began as an apprentice usually as a young boy assigned to work under the tutelage of a master craftsman. Apprentices frequently lived with the master and performed many other menial tasks other than those related directly to learning the craft. After years of service and learning, an apprentice could rise to the rank of journeyman. Journeymen were free to work for other master craftsmen for wages. Only after additional years of work and meeting difficult criteria established by the guild could a journeyman be admitted to the guild as a master craftsman. A master had the right to open his own shop or merchant business. Through this system the guilds could control wages and prices, monopolize trade, set quality standards, and limit the number of people in a business. Once established, the guilds became as rigid in their own way as the old class structure. These merchants and craftsmen formed the basis for a new class of town dwellers, the bourgeoisie, burgesses, or burghers. They would form the basis of a growing “middle class” that really had no place in the old system of estates. The political and social systems were failing to keep up with the economic changes. Several factors began to strengthen the role of those kings willing and desiring to increase their power in this new society. These stronger monarchs led to the rise of the centralized, modern nationstates as we know them today. First, many landowners had been killed off during the Crusades leaving more land in the hands of fewer people. Second, cities and towns attached their development to the kings, rather than to the lords. They sought protection from the powers of unjust lords by securing promised rights to govern themselves, which they purchased with wealth gained through trade. In return, they were able to pay more in taxes to the king. As a result, the king now had more money to spend in controlling the lords who previously had been largely independent of his authority. Merchants also supported stronger kings in hopes of gaining protection in their travels as well as uniform laws, tariffs, uniform weights and measures, and other trade concessions which would make trade easier and more profitable. Kings had the money, the interest, and stood to profit the most by paying for new modern armies equipped with the first firearms and ocean-going navies armed with cannon needed to protect commerce. The old nobility lacked the wealth to keep up with such changes. Thus political, social, and economic changes were stimulated by the trade created by the Crusades. All of these thingsthe increasing wealth, wider travel, and a greater knowledge of the outside world- led to a new philosophy and outlook on life. Whereas during the Middle Ages, the Church provided the main source of inspiration, now there was a new interest in and concentration on man himself and the world in which he lived. This new age we call the Renaissance, the rebirth of the human spirit. We find this changing outlook on life reflected in the art, the architecture, the literature, the music, a new interest in learning and scientific discovery the rediscovered curiosity about the world bringing exploration and discovery, and in new political ideas. This new philosophy, which was human-centered and emphasized human reason in the analysis of all things, was called humanism and dominated the period of the Renaissance.

Discussion questions: Answer each of the following questions in complete sentences. Please be as indepth as possible. 4-5 sentences minimum. 1. Why did trade and travel decline after the fall of Rome? 2. Who was the first “Holy Roman Emperor” and how did he get the title? 3. What is the difference between the Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire? Explain. 4. What were the connections between the Holy Roman Empire and the Church? 5. Define feudalism and describe the characteristics of its organization. 6. Why were strong kings rare and central government generally missing under the feudal system? 7. What were the benefits supposedly derived from the feudal system? Who benefitted the most? 8. What was the importance of the Church and the Christian religion in the lives of Europeans in the Middle Ages? 9. How did ritual and sacraments of the Church establish a constant, ongoing relationship with its individual members? 10. How did the Church use the power of excommunication and interdiction in maintaining its power? 11. How were the education, learning, and knowledge of Europe preserved during the lowest point of the Middle Ages, the so-called “Dark Ages”? 12. What was the dominant philosophy of the Middle Ages called? Who was its most outstanding spokesman? What were its basic beliefs, and how did that philosophy view life and learning? 13. Who belonged to each of the three estates of medieval European society and what was the primary duty of a member of each estate? How was this different from the social classes in modern society? 14. Describe the guilds. Who made up their membership and what was their influence on the business practices of the late Middle Ages? 15. How did the guilds improve the lot of freemen? How did they help business and trade? How did they restrict its growth? 16. Who were the bourgeoisie? Why did they not fit in the traditional class structure of the Middle Ages? 17. Why and in what ways did the kinds and central governments grow stronger at the end of the Middle Ages?

Europe map for assignment #2